The Wolf on the Path
by Mia Calima
Summary: So, there is a whole new universe in Pete's world for the Doctor to get to know, and Red is not the typical Mark 40 TARDIS. Plus the adventures and deadly dangers don't stop just because the Doctor only has one heart now...
1. Chapter 1

**All right everyone, so I thought that I was done writing the story of Rose Tyler and her Doctor in Pete's world, but this idea keeps niggling at me, so I'm going to go for it.**

** Just so everyone knows, this story is taking place probably a week to a month after the events that I wrote about in my story "The Little Red Hood". I hope that you enjoy.**

Chapter One

"No, I'm already on my way, and I have Red with me."

Rose leaned against the police cruiser and put the hand that wasn't holding her phone up to her eyes.

"Seriously Doctor, I'm fine." She glanced over at the practically demolished double decker bus landed awkwardly across several lanes of highway, and tried for a smile. "We're all fine, and the wormhole has closed up. There's no need for Red to move if she's not ready."

The Doctor's voice was matter-a-fact when he spoke, but Rose could tell that he was still tense.

"I've already isolated her core matrix, and made sure that her grounding mechanisms are secure, so she's stabilized to travel." He blew out a little breath that made Rose pull away from the phone for a second "…And frankly, I think that she is even more anxious than me to see you."

Rose chewed on her lip. Elation at the thought of having the Doctor and Red with her was warring with a sense of worry that Red wouldn't be able to handle moving from her home of eleven centuries in Norway to the craziness of London.

"I'm sorry, I just figured that it would be a quick trip home for some clothes and a look in at Torchwood…" She shrugged, her eyes following a tank as it trundled past and into the highway tunnel. Over the line she heard the Doctor chuckle.

"I always said that you set the record for jeopardy friendly." He paused. "Though how you managed to get on the one bus that was going to head through a wormhole portal to another planet is beyond even me."

She had to laugh at that, which attracted the confused attention of a few soldiers in red berets. She turned away to hide her smile from the professionals.

"Oi, just watch out for trouble yourself." She ignored his snort of protest. "And tell Red that I love her and can't wait to see her."

"Well that's nice; what about me?" The voice at the other end held a note of mock peevishness.

"I'll get you a cake." She promised, feeling her smile widen. "…and it will have plenty of ball bearings on top."

"They are actually called 'Dragees'…" Rose heard the faints sound of a girl's pedantic voice in the background, but the Doctor said.

"Lovely. It will be a proper old reunion."

There were more sounds in the background.

"Gotta dash now, we're boarding." The Doctor sounded a little breathless. "See you in a bit."

The phone connection shut off, and Rose slid it into her pocket.

"Sweet; but can we get out of here now?" From the police cruiser a dark haired young woman stuck her head out and gave Rose an impatient look.

"Keep you knickers on, your ladyship." Rose pushed off the side of the car and strolled around to the driver side. "I told you, this will be no trouble. Torchwood has jurisdiction on Alien affairs, and as an agent, after what just happened, I can take you in for debriefing and there is nothing that detective inspector can do about it."

"Yes, well let's get on with it then. It smells like sick back here." The Lady Christina wrinkled her nose dramatically, so that Rose could see her in the rearview mirror and then settled back into the seat. Rose shook her head and smiled.

As she went past the barricade and inched into traffic, she made sure to wave at the red faced detective inspector in his long brown trench coat.

"What is London like, Doctor?"

The Doctor pulled out of his own thoughts to look over at the source of the question. Red, or Red Tyler as he liked to think of her, was sitting, buckled into the Zeppelin passenger seat as tangibly real as any child could hope to look. She wore scuffed looking red converse shoes, purple jeans, and a bright red hoody, and she held a fluffy blue bunny on her lap. To anyone who didn't know better, she could be just an ordinary nine or ten year old, and not a thousand of years old trans dimensional, energy creature.

The Doctor took a breath, and focused on the question.

"Well, it a sight bigger than your village."

The little girl face was focused on him intently, so he cleared his throat and continued.

"There's lots of big buildings, and people.. Blimey, there's people all over, and they are all busy doing this and that." He smiled to himself. "Brilliant, people."

"Are we going to live in London now?" Red's face had a thoughtful expression on it.

The Doctor shrugged.

"Probably for a while at least. Why do you ask?" The Doctor shifted in his seat, and one foot bumped against the old fashioned leather briefcase laying at his feet. He shot a glance over at Red, but she didn't seem to notice the movement. She mostly seemed to be thinking about his question.

"I have never been away from Darlig Uve Straden. I wonder how I will take care of people if I am away." She looked over at him, still clutching the blue Bunny that Rose had given to her right before she headed back to London. ("It's cute. She'll love it." Rose had defended.) The Doctor considered her.

_When Rose sees her, all she sees is a little girl. I wish it was that easy for me._

"Your still there, just as much as you are here, Red." He tried to speak gently, aware that the Zeppelin was nearing its destination. "Remember how we talked about the dimensions, and time tracks?"

A very familiar, very ten year old, look flitted over Red's face as she seemed to recall that conversation, and the Doctor suddenly, vividly, remembered his short experience as a teacher, and why he had been glad it was so short.

_All of time and space, with the consciousness of a ten year old._ He sighed. _Allonsey._

"Mum said that we would get real, proper, chips when I came to London. Do you like chips, Doctor?"

The Doctor recognized the diversionary tactic, but smiled and let the subject go, for now.

"Chips are good, though it mostly depends on what their frying them with." He hadn't much cared for the Krylotane brand of them.

"What would you have done if Mum couldn't get back from that other planet?"

Like lightening out of a clear blue sky, the question hit the Doctor and knocked the breath out of him. He shuddered and looked over at the girl sitting beside him with her fingers turning white on her blue bunny, and shook his head. A yawning cavern of fear opened up in his mind, at the thought that he had purposely kept out of his head all through the hours as he'd tried to give Rose instructions over the phone, and paced helplessly through the Norwegian Bed and Breakfast.

The Doctor made an effort of will to shove all the thoughts of what could have happened aside, focusing on the rapidly approaching London skyline.

"Doctor?" Red's voice was small, but insistent. He felt a muscle twitch in his jaw, but forced himself to smile.

"I would have got her back." He sniffed and looked away. "One way or another, I would have got her back."

From beside him Red made a tiny little sound of satisfaction, and suddenly he felt her hand in his, as warm and real and human as anything, and turned to look over at her. The little girl face under its bright, blond curls was smiling happily.

"I want chips and ice cream."


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry, that this has taken so long to get posted.**

**Unfortunately, with school being what it is, finding time to write has been a bit problematic. Hopefully, you all will enjoy this pieced together result of minutes stolen from school work, to do "fun" writing.**

Chapter Two

"Oi, I've missed you so much" Rose squeezed until both The Doctor and Red were protesting, before letting go.

"But, you didn't need to feel like you had to come, I was heading back to Norway in the morning." Rose shook her head at the Doctor, fully aware that the giant smile on her face was going to take away all of her word's meaning. The Doctor shrugged, and gave her a grin.

"Well, Red was in the mood for some real London chips anyway."

Rose smiled at the Doctor noticing that he seemed a bit pale, and his hair had that wild, spikey look that it usually only got after he was really in a thinking frenzy. It made her feel bad, so she turned back to Red.

"You brought you bunny with you. Have you thought of a name for him yet?" She threw a triumphant look at the Doctor, who rolled his eyes.

Red gave her a severe look.

"She's a girl, mum. I'm trying out the name 'Susan', but I don't think it fits." Red continued in a contemplative voice. Rose tried not to smile, and looked over Red's head at the Doctor.

_Oi, I wonder what's wrong with the name Susan? _She thought, but a second later the expression was gone.

"Come on then." Rose grabbed the Doctor's hand and then Red's. "I'll give you the tour."

"Well, you've certainly done a lot with the place since I was here last." Rose watched the Doctor as he took in the large room from their balcony vantage. A walkway ran along the entire perimeter of the room and looked down onto the busy heart of Torchwood headquarters. Half a dozen field agents were at their desks despite the early hour, guzzling coffee and filling out reports. Rose saw the spiky haired Jake arrive balancing a white bakery box in one hand, and a café drinks holder in the other, and smiled.

"What's that?" The Doctor's voice drew Rose's attention away from the prospect of pastries. She followed his line of sight and felt her smile waver. To any normal observer, the object hanging down from the high ceiling, so that it hung in the air at the exact center of the room, looked like nothing more than an extremely overdone light fixture. Rose wasn't surprised that the Doctor noticed it.

"It's the rift." Rose paused. "Well, what's left of it anyway. Since you sealed it up we've hardly had a blip from it."

The Doctor gave her a questioning look.

"It used to be a wall?"

Rose shrugged.

"Yeah, and now it's nothing."

The Doctor just kept looking at her, so she relented.

"The rift wasn't in the wall, and it was hard to really monitor it the way it was, so when we had the chance to renovate we ripped out the whole floor, and hung the sensor array in the very middle of where the rift was."

"Clever." The Doctor allowed.

Rose shrugged, and then smiled at Red, who was doubled over the balcony railing looking down at the people below.

"Here, it's not fish and chips, but the shop down the street does some of the best glazed donuts in the universe."

"Donuts!" The Doctor sounded scandalized, but Rose felt her stomach rumble.

"Come on, or Jake will eat them all."

As expected, there was a huddle around the white bakery box. Rose collared people at random and introduced them as they made their way over.

"This is Elliot, he's a whizz with language." Rose pointed out a short, black man in a muffler. "His universal translator is actually pretty good. You just have to be careful about mixing the languages up." She grinned at the Doctor's raised eyebrow. "Let's just say, ordering the Pastrami on Rye from the Togdorian sandwich shop, was a mistake."

The Doctor snorted.

"I'll say, the Togdorians couldn't make a decent sandwich to save their lives. Now biscuits, mind you…" He trailed off as a woman in front of him turned around, and made to get past him with her coffee and pastry.

"Donna!"

Rose held her breath.

"Donna Noble, what are you doing here?" The Doctor's voice was high and shocked, while the tall, red headed woman just looked him up and down critically.

"I work here, Sunshine, thank you very much. And it's Donna MacAvoy." She sniffed. "Mrs. Donna MacAvoy."

"Misses?" The Doctor reared back with his eyebrows doing a, kind of, up and down dance, surveying the woman from head to toe.

_Here it comes. 1...2...3._ Rose stifled a fit of giggles.

"You're pregnant!"

The woman, with her quite noticeably bulging abdomen, narrowed her eyes at the Doctor.

"No way!" She threw up a hand that wasn't holding coffee. "Well, isn't that wizard? Maybe you should be a Doctor or something!"

"Well, actually…" The Doctor began, but Rose grabbed his hand. 

"Donna, this is the one I told you about, the Doctor."

Donna gave the Doctor another hard look.

"You didn't say he was such a long streak of nothing; and, not half, rude." She added almost as an afterthought.

"That's a bit rich." The Doctor protested, but Rose squeezed his hand and he subsided. Donna sniffed and sailed past them with her coffee. The Doctor stared after her open mouthed.

"Are you two related?" Red's voice drew Rose's attention back down to the little girl, who was giving the Doctor a curious look. He turned to her with an expression of incredulity.

"What?"

"You look alike." Red said, and then seemed to lose interest in the topic and headed toward where the smell of deep fried pastries was wafting.

The Doctor stared after her for a moment, and then turned to Rose who was already bracing for the questions. He looked at her a moment and she could practically see the wheels turning behind his eyes.

"Let me guess: Dimension cannon, right?" He asked finally. "It can measure timelines, you said."

She smiled.

"Sort of." She shrugged. "I mean, it's all kind of a long story."

"I think I had better hear it." The Doctor snorted. "I've only got one heart now, and I don't think it should have to deal with that many shocks."

Rose scoffed.

"Oh, please. There's an entire planet full of people getting along just fine with just one heart."

"It's barbaric!"

She slapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Oi, enough of that you, or I won't get you a donut."

"That's another thing." The Doctor with a half grimace. "What is the deal with donut's in London?"

"Parallel world, remember." Rose reminded him as she reached through and snagged two gooey pastries. "There are actually a couple nice differences."

"Donuts being one of them?" The Doctor observed, before taking a bite. Rose watched his eyes widen and smiled.

"Told you."

Another voice interrupted before the Doctor could speak again.

"Rose." Donna Noble-MacAvoy's voice called across the room of office cubicles, and she turned to see the other woman standing with a phone in her hand. "Rose, Alan's on the line. He says he thinks they might have found something."

"This Alan then" Rose looked over to see the Doctor putting on his spectacles and glancing around her office. "Who's he? What's he do?"

Rose grinned.

"He's an archeologist." She leaned over to hit a button on her computer. "He's been working with Torchwood a couple years. Even helped us sort the whole situation with the Nestine Consciousness."

"What?" The Doctor's question was drowned out by a hissing noise that gradually dwindled into another man's frustrated swearing.

"…Bloody, stupid, sea water!" The image on the screen jerked as the fuzzy image of a man gave it a heart slap.

"Oi! Stop mistreating the equipment, boy-o." Rose tried to hold a severe expression, but her smile leaked through as the picture suddenly cleared to show a pale, young, man with dark hair. Beside her the Doctor choked on a laugh.

"Rose, can you see me?" The face of Alan squinted at the screen. "Who's that with you?" Rose shot the Doctor a chiding look as he snorted another laugh.

"I can see you fine, Alan. What have you found?" Rose tried not to be distracted by the Doctor who was snapping his fingers and pointing at his forehead. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at him.

_Genius and all that, you'd think he'd remember the parallel world bit._

"It's amazing, Rose, I can hardly describe it."

"Something's stay the same." The Doctor commented in her ear, and she nudged him in the ribs.

"The ship itself is wonderfully preserved, and … inside it's just a treasure trove."

Rose bounced up on her toes.

"Yeah, that's great, Alan, but I'm not really interested in a load of old coins and stuff."

"No, you're not getting it." Alan interrupted. "This ship is hundreds of years old and it's been under the Indian Ocean all this time, but there isn't a speck of rot on it." He sounded breathless. "And there's a perception filter. That has to be what our scanners were picking up. It doesn't make sense why it hasn't been found in all this time otherwise."

The Doctor leaned forward, and Rose could see that his interest was piqued.

"Is there an energy signature of any kind, Adam?"

"No, it's just dead as far as we can tell." Alan looked confused. "And the name is Alan. Who are you again?"

"The Doctor. Now can you show me the ship, Adam?" Rose frowned at him, and he rolled his eyes. "Alan…whatever."

"Er, yeah; well, I took video when we were down there earlier." He squinted at the screen again. "Rose?"

"Yeah, just do it, Alan."

He gave another unsure glance, but nodded.

"Uploading it now."

For a moment the screen went still and the Doctor let out a loud guffaw. Rose's lips twitched, but she tried to look reproachful.

"Stop it, Doctor. He has no idea what happened with Adam."

The Doctor subsided.

"Fair enough, but I know you must have tried the snap at least once."

Rose leaned forward, but couldn't hide her grin.

"He used to think the snapping was a nervous habit, or something, of mine."

The video came up then, and images of a silty, underwater world filled the screen. Rose squinted and tried to separate what she was seeing into distinct shapes, but gave up after a moment. She tapped a button on her computer.

"Alan, I can't see a thing. What are we looking at here?"

Alan's disembodied voice spoke from her computer.

"The ship is that big dark shape directly ahead. It is sunk into the ocean floor about half way on its port side, so the deck is pretty much directly ahead."

The dark shape grew larger as the video drew closer, till it filled the screen and Rose could pick up some details. The wooden deck of the ship faced them like a slightly overhanging wall, with what looked like bamboo shutters (or grates, she supposed) looking out. The camera turned slowly, and Rose saw another dark shape like a pylon leaning out and away from the deck.

"That's the main mast." Adam's voice confirmed.

"The sails must be all gone, surely?" The Doctor questioned, clearly much interested by the mystery.

"Most of them are torn away, but..." The excitement in Alan's voice was barely contained. "The main sail was furled and lashed to the mast, and it appears to be intact."

The Doctor whistled.

"And you're sure that this ship has been down there for a while?"

"Rock solid." The boy archeologist practically crowed. "Carbon dating puts it back to at least the fifteenth century. Plus we found Ming dynasty coins all over the place."

"But the sails and stuff, should have rotted by now?" Rose put in, hoping that she was keeping up with the conversation.

"Exactly," Alan laughed. "Just wait until you see inside though."

The video was indeed proceeding inside the wreck, and Rose grimaced at the dark and blurry picture.

"Couldn't you have taken a light?" She complained. Still, she could see somewhat.

The camera progressed through a series of claustrophobic compartments, settling on bits and pieces of ancient sailing gear, while Alan's voice kept up a feverishly enthusiastic commentary. Rose glanced over at the Doctor, who had his eyes fixed on the screen and was tugging his ear contemplatively. Another quick look around revealed Red, sitting in her chair, chewing on a donut and watching the screen with curiosity. Rose smiled.

_All together. This is nice._

"Now watch this, this is fantastic!" Alan's excitement broke into her reverie. "I'm pretty sure that this is the captain's cabin, and it is perfect!"

Rose looked up, and saw that the camera had indeed entered another compartment, which unlike the others, seemed well furnished. A richly detailed oriental carpet seemed to decorate the wall, (_floor,_ she reminded herself), and beautifully carved railings graced the sides of a bunk that was set in the ceiling.

The wall that was now the floor in the sunken ship was strewn with a jumble of belongings, and the hand of the anonymous camera person could be seen lifting and sorting through things.

Rose was just admiring an enameled comb that the diver was holding up in front of the camera, when she heard the Doctor gasp. The sharp in draw of breath was almost a hiss, as if he had touched a stove burner that was on, and it drew her attention immediately.

"What's wrong?" Rose wasn't sure what she expected when she turned to look at him, but the depth of shock on his face was not something she was prepared for.

"Doctor!"

He shook his head. "It can't be…"

_My gosh he looks like he's seen a ghost…the wasn't a Gelf _She amended in her mind.

"Doctor, what…? What can't it be?"

The Doctor suddenly lunged at the screen.

"No! Stop!" He turned and looked at her wildly. "Stop the video. Go back!"

Rose just stared at him a moment, trying to take in the wild eyes and pallor that had suddenly transformed his face.

"Rose!" He barked, and she shook herself into action; reaching down to tap at her computer.

"Back, back.." He instructed. "Now stop."

Rose looked up at the screen, which was mostly just showing a mounds of dark things that could only with imagination be separated into distinct items. The diver's hand was again holding the ancient comb, and frankly Rose couldn't see what was so special about it.

"Doctor, what's going on? It's just a comb."

"It's not the comb." The Doctor rasped, and Rose looked over to see him swallowing hard. "Look at the box just under it."

Rose frowned and squinted harder at the screen. She could just barely make out a square-ish shape amongst the general clutter of objects. _A box then…with some kind of design on it? _Faint, and almost impossible to see in the gloom was some kind of circular design on the box.

"Is there some sort of ring or something, painted on it?" She looked at it a moment longer, trying to work out the details. "No, it's a snake in a circle, eating its own tail." She looked at the Doctor.

"But what does it mean?"

The Doctor's face was grim.

"It means Time Lords, because that is the mark of the Corsair."


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay everyone, I haven't really had a chance to do much editing because my writing time is limited and I wanted to post. Anyway, I know it is a kind of slow chapter, but you have to get through this stuff somehow.**

Chapter Three

The noise was getting to Rose. She figured that she probably had four hours of sleep in the last two days, and her entire body was protesting.

_I swear, if he doesn't stop muddling with that bloody sonic…_ She opened her eyes and looked across at the Doctor who was perched on his seat, holding the new sonic screwdriver up to his ear, flicking it on and off. The concentration on his face was really too comical for her to stay cross. She sighed, and glanced past the Doctor to the window, which was dark, except for an intermittently blinking light, and then at Red who was curled up beside her with the blue bunny (Clara, for the moment, apparently). The little girl, who wasn't really a little girl, seemed to be asleep, and Rose didn't think about it too deeply.

"I thought you were going to sleep for a bit, until we land?" The Doctor asked from his perch, lowering his gadget for a moment to smile at her. She huffed through her nose, but then admitted.

"I can't sleep on planes. I've tried, but the noises are just all wrong." She cast a frustrated glance around the comfortable little cabin. "Zeppelins are fine, since they don't make as much noise, but planes buzz too much."

The Doctor gave her a sympathetic look.

"We'll be landing in not too long, I should think. You might catch a few winks while I'm sorting things out with the archeologist."

"You think it will be as easy as that then, Doctor?" She asked, ignoring the suggestion. "You said Time Lords, and I can't think that will be easy to sort out."

A frown settled on his face, but he didn't respond. Rose wasn't going to sleep and she wasn't ready to give up yet.

"You said once that if there were still Time Lords out there, you would know somehow." She shrugged. "Feel them somehow."

The Doctor nodded and then shrugged.

"It's not always exactly reliable, but yeah, if Gallifray and the Time Lords were still in this Universe, I would know it."

"Well, I know that's not the case." She spoke without thinking, trying to hold back a yawn. The Doctor's face was pale and staring at her when she focused back on him properly.

"What?"

_Bother, I'd meant to work around to it gently. _She reminded herself crossly. He was leaning forward, with his eyes fixed on her. She shrugged.

"Well, of course I went to look for you, didn't I?" Rose looked down at Red and gathered her breath. "After that sun went supernova, or whatever, and you left me on the beach; I started looking to see if there wasn't a version of you here somewhere."

"And what did you find?" Rose couldn't see the Doctor's eyes because she didn't want to look up, but she could hear the interest in his voice.

_Uerrg…there is no telling how he is going to react to this_.

"Rose?" That voice. _Well, it isn't like he not going to find out eventually_.

"It was hard, looking for you." She continued. "It's not like you're exactly the easiest bloke to find. But I got hold of a data thing, uplink, from the Adipose royal family."

"Wait," The Doctor interrupted. "Why would the Adipose give you a data link?"

"Well, it was part of the bargain, wasn't it?"

"What bargain?"

"The Adipose need loads of obese people to get the fat for their babies, and we have loads of people who want to get rid of fat, it's not like we couldn't find a common ground." Rose bridled at his look.

"It's perfectly safe! I tried it and lost three pounds." She smiled. "Their called Trixy, Staxipose, and Happedrome. I even get cards from them sometimes."

"You do know that they don't just use fat; they can convert an entire human into Adipose in just a few minutes." The Doctor gave her a serious look.

"Yeah, and as soon as they do something like that we report them to the Shadow proclamation and take prisoner every Adipose creature on this planet." She shook her head. "It's not like we don't keep track of them. And before you ask, we do tell people about the risks of their fat donation." She made air quotes around the last word.

The Doctor was just staring at her and shaking his head, so she had to ask.

"What?"

"It's brilliant!" He rubbed his jaw, and if Rose hadn't know better she would say that he looked a bit sheepish. "I just never thought of handling it that way."

Rose smiled.

"Well, you wouldn't would you; all skin and bone. What would you find in common with an Adipose?" She laughed.

"Oi!" The Doctor gave her an affronted look. "You were going to tell me about what you found out."

Rose sobered, and looked away.

"Um, yeah."

"Come on, Rose. Just spit it out." The Doctor said.

Rose started to shrug and then stopped, mindful of Red nestled against her.

"From what I could find out, you did exist here…in this universe, I mean. I could find records and things through history of a person called the Doctor." Rose bit her lip. "…But it all, kind of, just, stops…And no one seems to have ever seen my Doctor." Rose colored slightly as the Doctor raised an eyebrow at her.

"I mean, nobody can say that they have seen either of the faces that you've had while I've been with you."

She hunched her shoulders slightly.

"I found stories of the time war, and I've found people who talk about what you did, but they all say…" She stopped again.

"What do they say, Rose?" The Doctor's voice asked quietly. She sighed.

"They all say that you died in the Time War, Doctor."

Forgetting about Red and everything else, Rose reached over and put a hand on his arm, as he seemed to work on taking the news in.

"You okay?"

He shrugged and took a breath through his nose.

"Yeah."

"'Cause I know how I felt when I found out that I didn't exist here…" Rose offered, but the Doctor shook his head.

"No, really Rose, it's fine." He blew out a quick breath. "Makes things a little less complicated, actually, if I don't have be worried about running into myself all the time."

He frowned.

"Hang on…But if I died in the Time War, then we never went back to 1780, or met Queen Victoria… how come there's a Torchwood?"

Rose smiled.

"Yeah, I wondered about that to, but it turns out Queen Victoria still went to that house that night and met the Werewolf. It changed everything here, 'cause in this universe she destroyed herself to keep the wolf from taking over." Rose glanced around the workshop.

"That's why we have a President of Britain and the United Kingdom, and Torchwood is what Sir Robert and his wife started to combat the alien threat."

"Sir Robert survived?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, but what do you figure; he never would say exactly what happened. Except that the Queens sacrifice made it possible for them to escape."

"Quite a woman, was Queen Vick." The Doctor agreed.

"Quite the tosser was that Robert, bloke." Rose muttered.

"Come on, Rose." The Doctor chided. "It's not like he had a lot of choice." Rose sat back without comment.

"This does make things complicated though, because the Corsair never had much to do with Earth back in the other universe." The Doctor sat back, his face thoughtful, and ran his fingers through his hair.

"How can you be so sure it's the Corsair?" Rose let her head fall back against the seat back. "Couldn't someone else use that drawing… thing?"

"I won't know for sure until I examine it myself, but…" He hesitated, and then shook his head. "Candy shop was a rubbish metaphor. Parallel worlds are like spice shops where everything is unlabeled…and…"

"You could be getting mint, or the green stuff could be henna…" Rose finished for him, smiling slightly. He smiled back and then looked out the window.

"We're descending."

Rose felt Red move and looked over to see her sitting up.

"Hey, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?" From the corner of her eye, she could see the Doctor's lip twitch into a slightly sour expression.

_If she wasn't sleeping, why would she have her eyes closed?_ Rose thought stubbornly.

Red smiled and looked around.

"They call it Burma here."

"What" Rose felt her brow furrow, and the Doctor sat up like a shot. Red looked between them and her smile faltered.

"You just…" She began, but trailed off.

"Was going to." The Doctor spoke gently, and reached forward to touch the little girl's hand. "I was going to ask if it was called Burma or Myanmar here." He smiled. "You beat me to it."

Rose watched her tighten her grip on the blue bunny, and blink a few times, before turning her face up toward her. Red gave an apologetic smile.

"Sorry."

Rose felt a jolt somewhere in the proximity of her chest, and had to struggle for a moment to prop up her smile.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for." She put her arms around the little shoulders and gave a quick squeeze. "What a clever girl you are."

After a moment the Doctor cleared his throat.

"Burma then." He tapped the sonic screwdriver against his knee. "Lovely place." A quick frown. "Mind you I think it was around 1500 BC, when I was last there. Water up to my knees in that ruddy rice paddy. I don't think that I saw the coast."

Rose could feel the plane coming in for a landing, and closed her eyes, letting the Doctor's babble about stepped temples, and the techniques for using copper to make bronze, roll over her.

Outside the tiny window, light was growing.

"I can't believe that you got here so quickly." Alan Mitchell, shook his head as he led the group through a collection of trailers and tents squatting on a muddy patch of ground. A thick, salty, drizzle had all of their hair plastered to their skulls. Rose lifted a foot and glared at the mud caked onto her trainer.

"Pete was able to get us a jet a flight." She tried to pick her way a little more carefully, behind the young archeologist. From behind her the Doctor quipped.

"Always lovely to see nepotism at work."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "If you'd rather have walked…" She could practically hear his mouth snapping closed.

They climbed up a short flight of stair into a box-like office, and Rose looked around.

"Gosh, Alan, you didn't have to tidy up just for us." Pieces of equipment along with rocks and buckets of muddy water practically filled the space, while a waist high bench ran along the middle of the room. On the bench, more tubs of water stood, though none quite as muddy as the buckets. In the tubs, different items soaked, some of them only vaguely recognizable.

"Er, well, we've been kind of busy…" Alan shrugged, and relaxed as Rose let her smile slip through. "We were able to bring up the box for you though."

"Where is it?" The Doctor's voice was sharp, and he sidled past Rose to get closer to the bench. Rose nodded at Alan who was giving her a quizzical look. He shrugged.

"It's here." The younger man stepped over to an alarmingly pink colored tub. The Doctor was right beside him, and Rose crowded in on the other side. Inside the tub a small wooden box sat covered by clear water.

From her perspective, Rose couldn't say that the box looked very special. The wood was dark, and un-ornamented except for the black mark of the serpent on one side. She certainly wouldn't have picked it for herself. The Doctor was staring at it though, as if it was the most amazing thing in the world.

"I still can't believe the condition of the artifact we are pulling up." Alan's voice burbled from beside them. "This site is going to be the biggest thing since the Rosetta stone."

Rose had only half an ear for Alan's commentary as she watched the Doctor reach gingerly into the tub.

"Wait, Doctor! You can't…" the protests were thoroughly ignored as the Doctor lifted the box from the water, and held it up to look at.

"Well Doctor?" Rose finally asked, as the Doctor turned the box and ran the sonic over it. "Do you know what it is?"

"It's a puzzle box." Red's voice spoke up from across the bench, and Alan jumped.

"Blimey, I forgot she was there."

The Doctor nodded.

"Yeah, I think you're right, Red. But I just need to find the right...Ooo, there it is." The Doctor stopped turning the box around, and very deliberately pressed a thumb in the exact center of the circling snake.

"What the heck!" Alan shouted.

Light was pouring out of the seams of the box, and slowly, like some kind of strangely luminescent flower, the box was folding open…to reveal another box, made of light.

"Oh, you beauty!"

Rose turned her eyes from the cube to the Doctor. _He looks like he just got exactly what he wanted for Christmas. _ Despite herself, a quick stab of resentment flashed through her.

"Rose do you know what this is?" The Doctor didn't look away from the cube to ask her, but just stood grinning at it.

"No idea," Rose admitted.

"This is Time Lord Post. A bright, shiny, message in a bottle, only it's a box. Wrap up all your thoughts up and send them out, without touching a pencil or a keyboard."

"Kind of like the psychic paper," Rose hazarded. He made a face that said she was probably completely wrong, but Alan interrupted.

"How do you read it Doctor, if it is a message? Is the writing inside the light box?"

"Message inside the light box, how daft is that?" The Doctor scoffed, and Rose gave him a scolding look. "No, of course the light is just pyrotechnics. I told you, it's thought mail." He set the wooden box on the bench and held the other box in his hand.

"So how do we find out what the message is Doctor?" Rose asked, aware that her voice sounded the teensiest bit impatient.

"I'm doing that now." The Doctor's expression grew distant and grave. "…And it isn't a bit good."

Rose looked at his face.

"Doctor what is it? What does it say?"

The Doctor shook his head.

"Listen Rose, can't you hear it?" He looked over at her wide eyed, and she shook her head. "Give me your hand." He took her hand, and suddenly she did hear something. A woman's voice and the shrieking of alarms.

"The Ship won't make it any farther. I'll have to land her on earth and then I'll have to hide. They have my scent and they'll track me through all of time and space, but if I can hide, I might out last them. I have to hide as a human."

A new shrill of alarms broke into the woman's monologue, and Rose looked up at the Doctor's grim face. Then the woman's voice was back.

"If it is myself hearing this, you have to know that you are the last of the Time Lords and you cannot stay human, you cannot forget the Treasure! The watch, you must open the watch when the time is right. Open the watch and become again your true self. Above all, the Treasure must be protected."

Rose shook her head as the last, desperate sound of the woman's voice faded. She felt as if she had just run from a horde of Slitheen, and she had to take a breath to calm the shaking.

"That was horrible, I could feel how afraid and everything that she was." Rose looked at the Doctor again who was frowning grimly at the cube. "Doctor, what did it all mean?"

He looked up, but it took a moment for the thoughts to clear from his eyes.

"It means that the Corsair's ship was fatally damaged, and so she was marooned here on earth. Something…" here his jaw tightened. "Probably the creatures who damaged her ship, were chasing her, and she was forced to use a Biological/Gene Rewriter to change herself into a human, while storing the Time Lord Part of her in a device that looks like a fob watch." The Doctor looked away.

_Gosh he looks sad. Is it really that bad to be just a human? _She tried to banish that thought quickly.

"So, this is a message to herself then?" Rose asked, trying to put the Doctor's sadness from her mind.

"Yes, but I don't think that it worked." The Doctor set down the cube, and removed his glasses to rub at his eyes. "I think that the Corsair forgot, and stayed a human."

Rose frowned at him.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the message is keyed to the Corsair and it has stayed on that ship all this time. If she had gone anywhere besides that ship, it would have followed her."

Rose considered that.

"So she must be dead then…"

The Doctor's shoulders slumped slightly.

"Probably." He stroked a finger over the little cube of light, but then stopped. "Except, maybe not completely."

Alan spoke up then.

"How do you not completely die, especially after nearly five hundred years?"

Rose felt a shudder run through her like a jolt of lightening.

"The Time Lord part." She stammered. "The watch."

"Exactly!" The Doctor shouted. He turned to the door.

"Wait, what are you doing Doctor?" Alan yelled after him.

"I am going fishing for a Time Lord!" The Doctor yelled back.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Rose was trying to adjust her wet suit.

"Mum."

_Why does it have to be so tight? _She tried pinching a portion of the material on her leg and ended up pinching her leg.

"Mum?"

"Stupid, sodding, suit, fit!" Rose commanded through gritted teeth, as she drew the zip up.

"Rose!" Red's voice broke through her concentration, and she looked round to see her daughter (depending on how you looked at it) sitting on a crate full of books and frowning at her. The caravan was Alan's and it looked a lot like she remembered the workshop where she had met Adam in her other universe, looking. Strange gadgets and a pair of trainers shared space on the tiny dinette, and the sink was full of muddy pottery shards.

Red sat near the door, and held her blue bunny on her lap. Rose gave her a smile.

"Yeah…what's up?"

The little blond girl gave her an exasperated look.

"I asked, when we are going home."

"Home?" Rose repeated, blinking.

"The bay," Red clarified. "Once we find the Time Lord Pocket watch, will we be able to go home."

"Norway," Rose bit down on her tongue. "Blimey." She looked at Red who seemed very small amongst the piles of archeological detritus, and considered her answer.

"What about the traveling, Red? That's fun. Doesn't it seem like a bit of adventure?"

The girl on the crate shrugged, and looked down.

The knock at the door startled them both

"Rose, are you ready yet?" Alan's voice carried easily through the thin skin of the caravan.

"The Doctor's already started down."

Rose growled, and guessed that that sound carried as well, because Alan was suddenly very quiet.

"Yes, I'm ready, just give me a second." She grabbed her mask and hurried toward the door. "Come on Red."

Outside, Alan stood in his wet suit, looking impatient.

"This way."

He led them down to the muddy beach, and into a tiny motor boat.

"Here put this in your ear," he said, handing her a tiny earpiece as they chuffed through the brown water of the inlet toward the open sea. "There is a microphone in the mask, and plus this we can all communicate with each other down there." He waggled the hand that wasn't operating the tiller.

"Of course, reception is terrible around the ship, so make sure that you keep someone in eyesight at all times, just to be on the safe side."

Rose nodded and popped the thing into her ear. Immediately, she heard the Doctor's voice, mid-gab

"…Bit dim down here. Need a light. Rose? Have you got your earpiece in yet? Blimey you are taking a while."

Oy, enough of that!" Rose interrupted. "We're almost to the staging area. You were supposed to wait for us."

"Could you bring an extra light down with you, when you come?" The Doctor's voice chirped in her ear, and she rolled her eyes. "I'm almost at the ship, but it's so dim I think it will be hard to do much searching."

"Fine. Light. Check." Rose glanced around the boat and spotted the mesh bag full of exploring gear, and especially heavy duty, underwater lights.

"Not a very patient bloke." Alan observed frowning down at the water. Rose shook her head.

"You don't know the half of it."

"Now stop that. I can still hear you." The Doctor complained.

"If the shoe fits mate." Alan's voice was a mutter, but Rose had to smile as she turned to Red.

"You can wait up here okay. We shouldn't be very long." The little girl sat in her bright yellow safety vest and looked at her with an expression of mixed trepidation and resentment.

"I want to go with you."

"We don't have any gear in your size, Red. It's not safe." Rose bit her lip. "But look, you'll be up here with Alan, and you can help him monitor everything."

Red's only response was a frown.

The motor boat tied up against a larger boat, with a crew of a couple scientists looking at bits and water samples. Rose grabbed the mesh bag and helped Red climb over the side of the bigger boat. Alan followed them.

"He already went down." One of the scientists, a woman grabbed the mooring line for the motor boat, and began tying it up. "The Doctor said to tell you, he'd see you down by the Untempered."

"The what?" Rose asked.

Alan turned to her and smiled. "There's lettering, like a name, or something on the side, and the words…well, the closest translation we have is "untempered".

Rose shrugged.

"Bit weird, but okay." She hefted the mesh bag. "So, how do I get down there?"

"Here," Alan led her over to the other side of the boat and pointed to a florescent pink nylon rope tied to a ring on the side. "This goes all the way down to the wreck, and ties onto a hatch. If you just keep your hand on the rope, you can't get lost."

"Got it; don't let go of the rope." Rose nodded, fighting down a swift surge of anxiety.

"Don't worry, "Alan reassured. "We also have a locator build into your suit and oxygen setup, so we won't lose you. It's just easier to work with the rope."

"Yeah, I get it."

Alan nodded, and then gestured to the bag.

"You've got lights in there, extra oxygen cells, and shark sticks."

Rose whirled from where she had been looking at the water to look back at him.

"Sharks?"

"Umm, yeah." The young man was trying to smile reassuringly, but he didn't have much talent at it. "Grey sharks swim in this area, and the occasional Ray."

"How occasional?" Rose asked.

He looked down at the bag, and then back up at her, trying for another smile.

"Hardly ever. Just keep the Shark sticks close." He knelt and pulled out a slender wand of metal. He showed her a button on the side.

"If an animal gets too close, just point this at them and push. It releases a burst of kinetic force that almost always drives them off."

Rose gave him a raised eyebrow.

"Almost?"

The look on Alan's face finally made her laugh.

"Oh, never mind. If I can handle Dalecks and Slitheen, I think I can handle a few fish."

"If Sharks are just fish, I don't even want to know what a Daleck or Slith-thing is." She heard Alan mutter, but just smiled and clipped the bag to her utility belt.

"I'll see you in a bit, Red." She smiled at the little girl who was still pouting. "Don't get into trouble."

Then she went over the side of the boat into the brackish, green water.

**Sorry for how short this is. I just haven't had time to write, but the reviews and things do motivate me to find time, so thanks.**


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